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Silver series
Silver series by Rhiannon Held Genres and Sub-Genres Urban Fantasy Series Description or Overview ☽ A terrific series with a fresh approach to werewolves, one that sticks with a more natural approach and stays away from all the convenient but stale magical elements that are found in so many urban fantasies. Instead of catastrophic save-the-world plots, these novels follow a damaged alpha female werewolf and her alpha mate as they search for a normal life while dealing with various enemies and with the stresses of daily life in the pack. Held is a skilled writer who has created a cast of interesting, sometimes quirky, characters whom she places into suspenseful plot situations and then allows us to watch their varied reactions. Narrative Style Third person voice —alternating the perspective between Dare and Silver. Books in Series Silver series: # Silver (2012) — Excerpt # Tarnished (2013) — Excerpt # Reflected (2014) — Excerpt Shorts, Novellas, Anthologies and Guides World Building Setting * Roanoke * Seattle * Portland Supernatura Elements Werewolves, The Moon (their deity) World ☽ Using her knowledge of anthropology, the author treats werewolves as a tribal society. In an on-line interview she says, “''They're a species, not the product of some magical curse. Werewolves can only be born, not turned. That way, I can have fun with all the cool biology and anthropology of pack dynamics, breeding populations, resource pressure, and all kinds of stuff, nudging them in non-human or exaggerated directions, but still keeping a group that will resonate as 'biological sic same people' with my audience''.” In this mythology, werewolves originated in Europe and emigrated to North America on the ship that brought the Roanoke colonists to what is now Virginia in 1586. The werewolves survived that first bitter winter, but the human settlers did not. Some 21st century werewolves still carry family names of the Roanoke settlers (e.g., Andrew Dare, who is a direct descendant of Virginia Dare). Currently, the werewolves of eastern North America live in sub-packs under one alpha. The western packs are more independent, with each one having its own alpha. Each pack leader is referred to by the name of the pack's geographical area of settlement (e.g., Roanoke, Seattle, Portland). Silver is an important plot element in this series. These werewolves are so severely allergic to silver that it can cause extreme scarring, loss of their wolf form, and even death. Centuries ago, European monks and priests used silver to torture and kill werewolves, and some werewolves used it on their own species as a weapon or for torture. Most packs believe that no one is using silver any longer, but that turns out to be untrue. Religion is also important to these werewolves. Most of them worship “the Lady” (aka the moon), and every time her name is mentioned, they press their thumbs to their foreheads and bow their heads. In this series, their moon worship is somewhat more organized than in most werewolf series. Andrew Dare, the hero of Silver, goes against the majority in this respect. He is a defiant atheist in contrast to his heroine, Silver, who believes deeply in the Lady, even though she believes that the Lady has deserted her. ~ Fang-tastic Protagonists ☽ Andrew Dare: As the story opens, Andrew Dare, enforcer for the Roanoke pack, is on the hunt for a lone wolf who smells like silver. Dare has a tragic history that involved the death of his wife and the abduction of his daughter while he was a European pack member. After Andrew went berserk following his wife's death, the European werewolves put a price on his head, forcing him to flee to the U.S., where he joined Roanoke and now lives a lonely life as a feared and despised disciplinarian—and sometimes executioner. Dare is a potential alpha, but he has no desire to assume that kind of responsibility. ☽ Silver: When Dare captures the lone wolf he’s been searching for, he discovers that she has been tortured—injected with silver nitrate—and has lost the ability to shift. She calls herself Silver because, she says, she has lost her former self to the “Monster” who tortured her. Silver also has apparently lost her sanity because she keeps talking to a personified version of Were-Death who is invisible to everyone else. In addition, Silver sees the world around her differently than other people do. For example, where Dare sees a busy highway, Silver sees a rushing river. Silver is so traumatized that she can’t—or won’t—tell Dare the who-what-where-why about her torture, so he contacts the Western packs and eventually takes her out to the Pacific Northwest to begin a search. ~ Fang-tastic Characters Fang-tastic Fiction: Rhiannon Held: SILVER SERIES - for filling chart To expand the table, right-press on a row of the table or (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add row. Author Rhiannon Held * Website: Rhiannon Held * Genres: Urban Fantasy Bio: Rhiannon Held is the author of the Silver series, an urban fantasy series from Tor. In her day job she works as a professional archaeologist. Unfortunately, given that it’s real rather than fictional archaeology, fedoras, bullwhips, aliens, and dinosaurs are in short supply. Most of her work is done on the computer, using databases to organize data, and graphics programs to illustrate it. ~ About | Rhiannon Held ✤ Rhiannon Held was born in Minnesota but moved to the Pacific Northwest young enough that she imprinted there instead. She got her MA in archaeology from Washington State University, and her current day job is as a professional archaeologist. Unfortunately, given that it’s real rather than fictional archaeology, fedoras, bullwhips, aliens, and dinosaurs are in short supply. Most of her work is done on the computer, using databases to organize data, and graphics programs to illustrate it. ~ Rhiannon Held Cover Artist Artist: none listed Awards Publishing Information * Publisher: * Author Page: Rhiannon Held | Authors | Macmillan * Book page: Macmillan: Series: Silver Series: Books * Bk-1: Paperback, 320 pages, Pub: June 5th 2012—ISBN: 0765330377 Book Cover Blurbs ✤ BOOK ONE BLURB—Silver (2012): Urban fantasy takes a walk on the wild side in Silver, the remarkable debut novel from Rhiannon Held.Andrew Dare is a werewolf. He's the enforcer for the Roanoke pack, and responsible for capturing or killing any Were intruders in Roanoke's territory. But the lone Were he's tracking doesn't smell or act like anyone he's ever encountered. And when he catches her, it doesn't get any better. She's beautiful, she's crazy, and someone has tortured her by injecting silver into her veins. She says her name is Silver, and that she's lost her wild self and can't shift any more. The packs in North America have a live-and-let-live attitude, and try not to overlap with each other. But Silver represents a terrible threat to every Were on the continent. Andrew and Silver will join forces to track down this menace while discovering their own power and their passion for each other. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied. ~ Silver (Silver, book 1) by Rhiannon Held, FF ✤ BOOK TWO BLURB—Tarnished (5/2013): Experience the romance and danger of running with the werewolves in this urban fantasy Andrew Dare has found his mate in Silver, but they haven’t found the pack they can call home. Some of his old friends think he should return and challenge Roanoke for leadership of all the werewolf packs on the East Coast. But Andrew has baggage—his violent history with the packs of Spain and the rumors of his lack of control. And then there’s Silver—the werewolf who has lost her wild self to a monster’s assault, and who can no longer shift forms. But perhaps together they can overcome all the doubters. The second book in this wonderful urban fantasy series plunges readers into the world of the shape-shifter packs who live hidden among us. ~ Goodreads | Tarnished (Silver, #2) ✤ BOOK THREE BLURB—Reflected (2/2014): Falling in love in a werewolf pack leads to some very bad choices in this new novel from the author of Silver. Rhiannon Held continues the secret lives of the werewolf packs that live and hunt alongside human society in Reflected, the third book of the series that began with her debut novel, Silver. Silver and her mate Andrew Dare are pack leaders of the entire North American werewolf population, and that makes the more traditional packs in Europe very nervous indeed. It’s getting hard to hide from human surveillance. ~ Goodreads | Reflected (Silver, #3) Quotes Goodreads | Rhiannon Held Quotes (Author of Silver) Read Alikes The Silver series is similar to Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series but with werewolves only—no vampires, fae, or demonic entities. Trivia *Goodreads | 2012 Releases (142 books) *Goodreads | Werewolf Books (545 books) Author Notes CG: Silver can no longer change into a wolf. Why feature a werewolf that has lost her wild side? RH: There's a number of different aspects to that decision. The first (and most prosaic) is that it seemed most realistic, that if she's been injected with enough silver nitrate that it affected her brain, there's no way she'd retain her wolf form. But more than that, I didn't want Silver to be yet another urban fantasy heroine who was physically kick-ass. Strong, capable, kick-ass in all other respects, yes, but not physically so. A lot of heroines who are forever busting out spinning roundhouse kicks leave me cold because that's just one aspect of strength; it's bad, I kick it. What about coaxing it, or negotiating with it, or tricking it, or calling in your allies to help you kick it, or building a kicking machine? Since my werewolves are physically stronger than normal humans, Silver could have gone that direction, and so I took away her ability to shift and also gave her her injured arm to give her a chance to show how strong she could be in other ways. When I read a story, that's what speaks to me, because personally I'm more likely to negotiate my problems than kick them. Finally, I wanted Silver to illustrate the unexpected balance life sometimes has. The skewed way Silver sees the spirit realm instead of the real world--or hallucinates, depending on your point of view--is very beautiful, in a way. Losing her wolf form wasn't really the price of that, because she didn?t decide to pay one to get the other, but they're light and dark aspects of the same event. It was terrible to lose her wolf form, and it's sometimes terrible to hallucinate, but sometimes it's beautiful too. And it's definitely a part of who is she is. So I wanted both the light and the dark in her life, balanced. CG: I loved the mythology you created in Silver, deifying the moon as The Lady, as well as the weres' personification of Death. Why did you give your werewolves their own religion? RH: I gave my werewolves a religion because religion is an integral part of a culture. In the beginning, it was something of a thought experiment: what would a werewolf religion be like? Obviously it would probably have something to do with the moon, but saying "they worship the moon!' or "they worship the Earth Mother!" is like saying Christians worship an omnipotent guy with a son. The intriguing part, the emotional part, the resonating part is all the stories, and the parables, and the lessons, and the songs, and the rituals. I wanted to give my werewolves a religious force in their lives that would resonate with the readers, since religion is a force in nearly everyone's life, even if you're an atheist and it's not your religion that's the force. That's also why I made the conscious choice never to show whether the gods were real in terms of the novel's world. We all struggle with that decision for ourselves in this world, so the characters have to also. ~ More: An Interview with Rhiannon Held - McNally Robinson See Also * List of Vampires of Urban Fantasy * List of UF Anthologies — UF Anthologies * List of Cover Artists * Urban Fantasy Links External References Books: *Books | Rhiannon Held *Silver series by Rhiannon Held ~ GR *Rhiannon Held ~ FF *Rhiannon Held - Chronological Bibliography ~ ISFdb Excerpts and Freebies: *Books | Rhiannon Held Summaries, Articles: *Fang-tastic Fiction: Rhiannon Held: SILVER SERIES *Books | Rhiannon Held — list of reviews The World, Characters, etc: *Fang-tastic Fiction: Rhiannon Held: SILVER SERIES Reviews: *Review: Silver #1 by Rhiannon Held - All Things Urban Fantasy *Bookish: Silver #1 by Rhiannon Held (Review) *Review: Silver #1 by Rhiannon Held | Rabid Reads *Silver #1 – Rhiannon Held » Bookworm Blues *Review: Silver #1 by Rhiannon Held | Books *5bat! Review: Tarnished #2 by Rhiannon Held | All Things Urban Fantasy *The Big Idea: Rhiannon Held | Whatever *World in the Satin Bag: Book Review: Tarnished #2 by Rhiannon Held *Black Gate » New Treasures: Reflected #3 by Rhiannon Held Interviews: *An Interview with Rhiannon Held - McNally Robinson Booksellers *Sci-Fi Fan Letter: Author Interview: Rhiannon Held *Why I Write Urban Fantasy: A Guest Post by Rhiannon Held | Chadwick Ginther *The Qwillery: Interview with Rhiannon Held, author of the Silver series - February 18, 2014 *▶ Rhiannon Held Interview - YouTube *Interview w/ Rhiannon Held | The Skiffy and Fanty Show ~ Audio Author: *Rhiannon Held *Rhiannon Held ~ Blog *Rhiannon Held (Author of Silver) ~ Goodreads Community, Fan Sites: *(6) Rhiannon Held *Twitter Gallery of Book Covers Silver (Silver #1) by Rhiannon Held.jpg|1. Silver (Silver #1) by Rhiannon Held ~ Excerpt, more|link=http://rhiannonheld.com/?page_id=409 Tarnished (Silver #2) by Rhiannon Held.jpg|2. Tarnished (Silver #2) by Rhiannon Held|link=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16059370-tarnished Reflected (Silver #3) by Rhiannon Held.jpg|3. Reflected (Silver #3) by Rhiannon Held|link=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910067-reflected Category:Weres and Shifters as Main Supe Category:Werewolves and Shifters Category:Female Lead Category:Series